One Shirt or a Hundred, Every Colour Included: How DTF Changed the Maths of Custom Clothing

Twelve people. One brilliant idea. A photo of the birthday girl's dog on the front, a sunset fade behind it, and everyone's nickname on the back.

Not so long ago, a print shop would have sucked its teeth at that. A design like this needed a stack of screens, hours of set-up and an order big enough to make it all worthwhile. For twelve shirts, the set-up alone could cost more than the shirts.

DTF printing has changed that maths completely. There are no screens to make, so there's no screen set-up cost, whether you order one shirt or a hundred, in one colour or a thousand. In this guide we'll show you exactly why small orders used to be so expensive, what "full colour with no set-up" really opens up, what actually drives the price now, and how to pick the right print for your order.

The short version: with screen printing, every extra colour adds a screen and every screen adds cost, which hits small orders hardest. With DTF, colours are free and there are no screens; what matters is how big the print is and how many places it goes.

Why small orders used to cost so much

To see why DTF is such a big deal, it helps to know how screen printing works.

For every colour in your design, the printer makes a separate fine mesh screen. Each one is coated in light-sensitive emulsion, exposed with that colour's part of the artwork, washed out, dried, clamped onto the press and lined up precisely with the others. Then the inks are mixed. Only then can the first shirt be printed. Industry guides put each screen at around $30 to $40 in labour and materials, and a design on the front and the back needs a set for each.

All of that costs the same whether the run is 12 shirts or 1,200. Spread across 1,200 it's pennies per shirt. Spread across 12, it adds up fast:

That's why print shops traditionally set high minimum orders, why full-colour designs on small runs were so pricey, and why plain one-colour logos became the default for clubs and small businesses. It wasn't what people wanted; it was what they could afford.

With DTF there are no screens at all. Your design goes straight from our designers' computer to the printer, so a ten-shirt order isn't weighed down by set-up costs built for a thousand.

Every colour, every photo, every name

With screen printing, the more colours in your design, the more screens it needs. Photos and smooth colour fades are hardest of all: they need a technique called simulated process, with many screens and skilled colour-separation work, which pushes the point where it becomes affordable into the hundreds of shirts

With DTF, colour is free. A photo of your dog, a sunset gradient, a club badge with twelve colours and fine gold lettering: it's all one print. Here's what that opens up:

• Personalisation for everyone. A different name on every shirt costs no more to set up than the same name on all of them. Think team kits, staff uniforms with first names, or hen and stag parties with nicknames.
• Photos and smooth fades. Full photographic detail, gradients and fine lines down to about half a millimetre.
• Dark garments, no compromise. A white base under the colours means a design looks just as vivid on a black hoodie as on a white tee.
• Mixed garments, one order. T-shirts, hoodies, polyester sports tops and tote bags can all carry the same design, because DTF works on cotton, polyester, blends, nylon, denim and canvas.
• Painless top-ups. A DTF print is made first and pressed on later, so ordering six more shirts for new starters is quick, with no new set-up.

Ideas that suddenly make sense on a small order

• A family reunion tee with a photo from 1985 on the front
• Twenty staff T-shirts, each with that person's name on the sleeve
• A band's first merch run of 25 shirts with full-colour album art
• School leavers' hoodies with every name on the back
• A one-off birthday shirt for the person who has everything

What actually drives the price now

With screen printing, the big price levers are colours and quantity. With DTF, they're the size of the print and how many places it goes. Transfer suppliers typically price DTF by the square inch of film, not by the number of colours.

Two handy tips follow from this:

• Go bold on colour, sensible on size. A twelve-colour design costs no more to print than a one-colour design of the same size, but a full-back print uses a lot more film than a chest logo.
• Think about positions. A front logo, a back print and a sleeve name are three separate prints. Each adds a little; none needs a new set-up.

Which print suits your order?

DTF is the all-rounder: it handles one-offs and big runs, simple logos and full-colour photos, cotton and polyester. But it isn't the only tool we use, and the right choice depends on what you're ordering. Find your order on the grid:

When embroidery is the better choice. For a smart, textured logo on polos, fleeces, caps or workwear, nothing beats embroidery. We stitch in-house on Tajima embroidery machines using German Madeira thread, and our design team digitises every logo themselves, so the stitched version is as crisp as the printed one.

When screen printing can be cheaper. We'll always be straight with you: for very large runs of a simple one- or two-colour design, think several hundred identical shirts, traditional screen printing can work out cheaper per shirt. If that's true for your order, we'll tell you.

Quick questions

Will one shirt look as good as a hundred? Yes. Every DTF print comes off the same printer with the same settings, so shirt number one and shirt number one hundred are identical.

How many colours can I have? As many as your design needs, including photos, gradients and fine detail.

Can I mix sizes and garments in one order? Yes. T-shirts in six sizes, a few hoodies and some polyester sports tops can all carry the same design in one order.

Can I add more later? Yes. Because the design is already prepared, a top-up order for new starters or extra players is quick and simple.

Will my design look as good on a dark garment? Yes. A white base layer is printed under every DTF design, and unlike direct-to-garment printing there's no pre-treatment spray needed, so colours look just as bright on black as on white.

Big ideas, any size of order

Print Press is a smaller business by design: up-to-date print technology, an efficient production system, highly trained staff and in-house, degree-qualified designers. That combination means high quality at lower prices, and it means your twelve-shirt order gets exactly the same care as a club's two hundred.

Got an idea? Send it over at printpress.clothing, however rough, and we'll turn it into a quote, with every colour included and no screens to pay for.